It’s not her, it’s the other. His former colleagues who now lie, officials have not done their job control, and the presidency of the region that has signed the financial regulations. This is summarized in substance the hearing Thursday, March 14, the PS member of the Bouches-du-Rhone, Sylvie Andrieux, appearing before the criminal court of Marseille since March 4 for “complicity in embezzlement of public funds.”

Socialist elected the northern districts of Marseille is suspected of having granted 740,000 euros in grants to fictitious organizations for electoral clientelism when she was vice-president of the Provence-Alpes-C?te d’Azur (PACA) between 2005 and 2008. In this case, 21 others – some of which are referred to “scam” – also meet in court, chaired by Christine Mee.

> Read the Socialist MEP Sylvie Andrieux to justice for embezzlement

There is ex-employees of the nearby regional council Ms. Andrieux and lords sensitive cities of his constituency. Heard at the bar during the hearing, the latter of which have admitted the facts, told how the regional council funded associations created from scratch, often under assumed names. “You could put the name of the dead, they did not check” assured Benyoub Same, one of the defendants.

…

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Marisol Touraine, the Minister of Social Affairs, say, personally, against the taxation of family allowances. Family allowances are being paid to all households from two children unconditionally. The government must soon announce savings for the family branch of social security, to make return to balance in 2016.

“Reform is needed,” said Marisol Touraine Monday on I> Télé, stressing the need to “strengthen family policy but to make sure it reaches its objectives.” “I’m not sure that the organization of family benefits as it exists today is fully effective,” she said in effect.

“MEASURES OF SHARED EFFORT BY ALL GENERATIONS”

“I’m on my part not in favor of taxing benefits because basically it would mean that low-income households that do not pay taxes today are affected,” the minister said, adding that “of other perspectives are possible. ”

She also reiterated the “need to hire a pension reform in the long term.” “It will take the measures to be measures shared by all generations of effort,” she reiterated. The terms of this reform “will be defined in the coming months.” The Minister recently presented Yannick Moreau, president of the commission for the future of pensions, a specification to develop possible reforms by June.



…

In five days, sectarian violence left more than 200 dead and 300 injured, according to a recent official report. But this figure could still rise in the coming days, as the tension increased in Iraq since the beginning of the week, an incident that ignited the powder.

What is the origin of the new wave of violence? The challenge to the Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Sunni community has taken since December 2012. He is notably accused of monopolizing power and marginalizing the Sunnis. The current wave of violence started precisely after an assault by security forces loyal to the government against a camp set up by protesters Sunni Houweijah in the restive province of Kirkuk. More than 50 people, mostly protesters, were killed in the first place.

In retaliation, attacks are launched against the security forces throughout Iraq and clashes between the two parties is growing. It continued on Saturday. In Baghdad, in the Abu Ghraib district, four soldiers were killed by an unidentified group of armed men then that fighting between police and militia were held at Baidji former stronghold of al-Qaeda jihadists, 180 km north of the capital.

Many fear that the country is sinking back into a political and religious crisis similar to the darkest hours of the civil war between 2006 and 2009, when Shiite militias and al-Qaeda fighters were committing massacres daily.



How does Nouri Al-Maliki? The Prime Minister did not hesitate to speak of a new “sectarian civil war” and believes that the conflict in Syria spills over into his country. Describing the sectarianism of “evil” that “did not need permission to move from one country to another,” he ruled Saturday that his return to Iraq “was not a coincidence.”

These disorders also show the fragility of power Maliki, whose coalition with Sunni has gradually collapsed since 2009, with the gradual departure of Ministers of the confession and the suspension of the participation of the Kurdish parties.

Considering that the country was at a “turning point,” the UN envoy Martin Kobler called for “restraint.” “I appeal to the conscience of religious and political leaders, who must not let anger trump peace and must be wise,” he said.





A real risk of fire. If the wave of violence began in Kirkuk, it threatens to spread rapidly throughout the country. Militias, old and new, do not hesitate to openly attack the government and its troops. In the north, insurgents seized the town of Sulaiman Pak, that Arabs and Kurds fight. On Saturday, Kurdish security forces were deployed to Kirkuk, “a dangerous development,” according to General Ali Ghaidan, a senior Iraqi military official.

Meanwhile, attacks took place against Sunni mosques in Baghdad and its suburbs. Sunni and anti-government protesters have announced their own “army” in their stronghold of the western province of Anbar. Sheikh Saeed Al-Lafi, spokesman of the protesters, justified the decision to “qu’Anbar remains a safe place for the Sunnis.”

The powerful Sahwa militia, formed by the government in 2006 to fight against Al-Qaeda, meanwhile threatened to take up arms in the province of Anbar. Its leader, Wissam Al-Hardane promised war against gunmen who killed five Iraqi soldiers if they did not hand over the culprits, according to Al-Iraqiya state television. He set a deadline of “24 activists to deliver the murderers of the Iraqi army.” “If this is not done, we are not sitting idly by,” he threatened.

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Alain Juppe, interviewed Monday, January 14 on the attitude that should have Francois Hollande after the success of the demonstration against gay marriage, has guard against “the stubbornness.” Marine Le Pen, meanwhile, continues to call for a referendum.

“There are times when the determination becomes stubbornness,” said the mayor of Bordeaux on France Info. “We are creating the conditions for a deep division within the French society.” “I think there are exit doors if one was willing to take the trouble to talk to and respect the views of each other,” said the former UMP minister.

Juppe judge and that “must be ruled medically assisted procreation. I also think the president realizes.” He was again in favor of the recognition of civil unions between same-sex couples with equal rights, but “in adoption, we need to reframe the debate.”

“THE PEOPLE STILL SOVEREIGN”

When asked on RTL if the event was a success, the President of the National Front, Marine Le Pen, said “definitely.” MEP but no regrets so far to have been absent: “As president of the FN, I have an additional role to denounce the diversion that is the choice for the government to launch a debate that divides on marriage and gay adoption, even though he is unable to respond to security issues, immigration, unemployment, declining purchasing power. ” Executives of the National Front were present in large numbers at the event on Sunday, and are used to justify the absence of their president.



“Once again, there is a gulf between opposition and even a national representation and the will of the people,” she said. “The arguments put forward by the government to reject a referendum are specious. The people in France is still sovereign. On all subjects, must hold a referendum and give him the floor,” argued the president of the far left right.

Former Interior Minister Claude Gueant UMP also called Monday for a referendum consultation it deems “necessary” while confident Europe 1 have participated yesterday, for the first time at an event.

After the failure of Paris and London to get twenty-seven lifting the embargo on weapons to Syrian rebels at the EU summit on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 March in Brussels, leaders of European diplomacy should review the issue at an informal meeting in Dublin on Friday 22 and Saturday March 23. A session that could, at best, lead to the convening of a special council of ministers. If no consensus emerges, France and Britain have both hands free to maturity of sanctions against Syria, May 31 However, Paris and London believe that the deterioration of the situation on the ground requires quick decisions.

WHY PARIS HAS CHANGED THE QUESTION

In Brussels, in February, the British William Hague was the strongest for a lifting of the embargo to the rebels and, failing that, an exception for “non-lethal” weapons and “technical assistance” to the insurgents . French diplomacy, more withdrawn, ensure having “fought hard” for this development. She now finds that it is “too small” compared to the evolution of the situation on the ground.

Why crescendo? For some, especially France intends to avoid being excluded from a possible diplomatic process driven exclusively by the United States and Russia. The one-man show of . Secretary of State John Kerry at the meeting of Friends of Syria in early February in Rome, have irritated Laurent Fabius.

According to another explanation, Hollande would actually divert attention to another subject, while the Brussels summit on economic recovery might highlight his lack of match for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, inflexible apostle of European austerity.

In Paris, the “coherence” is emphasized an approach that was to call, from August 2012 to the formation of an alternative government by the opposition, among the first to recognize the Syrian National Coalition (CNS) in November and want to give him the means to defend themselves as long as long as it has a government. Only the conjunction, in February 2013, the operation in Mali and the proposal for dialogue launched by the head of the CNS, Moaz Al-Khatib, was able to give “the impression of a floating” now dissipated . French diplomats also welcomed “the Kerry effect”, which would result in a concrete . commitment to the Syrian opposition.

WHAT WEAPONS FOR WHOM?

“The idea is to give the Syrians the means to defend themselves against the attacks of aviation and army tanks Assad,” said a diplomat. Antiaircraft and antitank weapons are indeed the most pressing demands of the rebellion. The insurgents are not totally deprived in this area. They recovered ammunition and artillery and anti-aircraft when taking artillery deposits in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib in recent months portable missiles.

Since the beginning of the year, the rebels killed several planes and helicopters using weapons seized from the regime, but also through the delivery of Chinese anti-aircraft missiles, which the Syrian army lacks. Weapons, purchased especially in the Balkans, have already been delivered via Turkey and Jordan. These are complex arrangements where the contractor, mainly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, behind a multitude of intermediaries.

The United States recently lifted the ban on their Gulf allies to supply heavy weapons to the rebels. American officers even participate in the selection and training of groups who benefit. French and British have also engaged in training missions in Jordan and “test the chains” by sending non-lethal equipment (night-vision equipment and communication).

These training missions and future arms shipments pass through a single channel: Salim Idriss, Chief of Staff of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the armed wing of the Coalition. Paris welcomes the fact that Saudi Arabia has recently agreed to go through it all deliveries.

WHAT IS THE REPORT OF FORCES IN THE TWENTY SEVEN?

Face in London and Paris – supported only by Slovenia – the most hostile to the end of the arms embargo countries are Austria, Scandinavia and Germany. Besides the vast majority of undecided countries, three members of the Benelux call for a compromise to persuade Russia to begin negotiations on a political solution. They put in balance the fate of civilian populations and the risk of proliferation. Belgium could still be closer to the French position: it insists that today “only moderates are deprived of the means to defend themselves.”

Thus, Europeans are deeply divided. In Brussels, we hear voices say that the European Union (EU) reproduces the same mistakes during the Balkan war. Its embargo penalizes less the Assad regime as the rebels, as he hit less Serbs and Croats and Bosniaks at the time.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC?

Friday, March 15, in response to Francois Hollande, Merkel held that the delivery of weapons to opponents trigger an immediate reaction from Iran and Russia, which would quickly turn to feed the Assad regime, which , increasingly cornered a big user of ground-ground missiles and cluster munitions. Catherine Ashton, the EU high representative for foreign policy, share this view and calls for “prudence” concerned about the consequences of lifting the embargo. Ashton leads the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue.

Russia, still smarting from the Libyan operation and very critical of the management suite of the Arab spring by Westerners, could she ever accept the departure of Bashar al-Assad? Surrounding Ashton believes and thinks can return to compromise in Geneva in June 2012, which provides for the establishment of a transitional government with the full powers.

“By delivering weapons, we do not rely exclusively on a military solution, insists a French diplomat. What we want is to create a new balance of power that forces the power to negotiate.” A bit like the Muslim-Croat offensive in 1995 had led to the Dayton Accords in the former Yugoslavia. “We are already seeing a thrill from the Franco-British initiative, he welcomes. Conflict seemed mired in trench warfare, we feel a thrill.” It is demonstrated by the recent progress of the rebellion in Homs and Deraa, and the desertion of Brigadier General Mohamed Khallouf in charge of logistics in the army and one of the most senior officers to break with the regime .

As for the fear that weapons end up in the hands of jihadists, Mr Cameron responded to his critics: “This is already the case!” An argument echoed by Laurent Fabius, for whom “the risk is that the most extreme, that is to say, Al Qaeda finally take over.” According to the French and British diplomats, as the “secular” rebellion is disarmed, the influence of Islamists, better and armed groups will continue to grow

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You already know the AC, alternative energy, anti-globalization political movements, now here’s alterscience. A new word formed by a historian of science, Alexander Moatti associated with Paris-VII in the laboratory sphere (science, philosophy, history) teacher. It comes to devote a book Alterscience, subtitled Postures, dogmas, ideologies (Odile Jacob, 330 p., euros).

Concept behind this brand new hiding groups or individuals whose common point is to be scientists – doctors, engineers and researchers – and to oppose science, including refuting, sometimes quite virulent, robust pillars as heliocentrism, Darwinism, relativity Albert Einstein, quantum mechanics, post-Big Bang cosmology … It is therefore a question of creationists, of géocentristes, of antirelativistes etc.. The purpose is not to explain why they are wrong, but to understand where these trends come from, what their motivations are, and explore what connects. With a mystery: what led scientists to drift denial and radical?

In passionate texts Moatti Alexander, who is also president of the Society of Friends of the Library of the Ecole Polytechnique, so meticulously plunges the sources of these movements on the margins of science. And the reader is full of surprises.

READ: The Alterscientifiques: allergic polymaths to mathematical abstraction



We discover circles in France in the twentieth century, launched by engineers from colleges, who think that the Earth does not revolve around the Sun, as the circle of scientific and historical studies (CESHE) or Centre and prospective studies on Science (CEP). In addition, the author of the geocentric theories a core of creationism: the subordinate position of the Earth in space is for this trend, as unbearable as his age.

We also learn that this attitude is not new. Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), known for his role in the French Revolution, was also a doctor who prided himself on optics and that is taken to Newton’s theory of the refraction of light. He also wrote against the Academy of Sciences and President Lavoisier, described as “modern charlatans.” Attacks over by Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and Auguste Comte (1798-1857) which will hyperpositivisme caused by Alexandre Moatti great harm to the French science, unable to make the turn in theoretical physics from 1850 (electromagnetism, gas kinetics, quantum theory …).

Another example is known as a brother of Light – the pioneers of cinema – Auguste (1862-1954), turned alterscientifique, challenging the contagious nature of tuberculosis in particular? And, as it should, in lambasting the Academy of Sciences, who knew his ideas (which was refused in its ranks, unlike Louis).

Vituperation NATIONALIST

Often, diving is rude or foul, infected by the nationalist and anti-Semitic vituperation scientists. At dawn the two world wars, some European scholars do not shine by their analysis, rewriting the history of science into a German “national” science, British, French,. The French mathematician Emile Picard (1856-1941) Germany denies any predominance in the advance of science during the previous centuries. In response, his German colleague Ludwig Bieberbach (1886-1982) criticized the abstraction of a Cauchy (French) in relation to a specific Gauss (German). In his previous book, Einstein, a century against him (Odile Jacob, 2007), Alexander Moatti had also described the German Nazi scientists to the cause of anti-Semitic attacks against Einstein and his theory.

But what the alterscience? Alexander Moatti plays on several meanings of the word “alter”. These are “alternative” theories in science fact “altered” (that is to say distorted), and turn to others, because of the need for recognition by the public, outside of conventional procedures confrontation with peers.

And the German Hans H?rbiger (1860-1931) challenged the Newtonian gravitation and imagine a cosmogony with icy planets. Trofim Lysenko (1898-1976) takes issue with classical genetics … “This is certainly attempts to replace by other theories, as does the usual science. But the difference here is that this is done in defiance of the scientific method and its mechanism. Namely, identify internal to the theory or disagreements with experiments “contradictions, explains Gilles Dowek, director of research at INRIA, author of The prejudices which encumber us (Le Pommier, 2009). “It is not because theories replace others that any theory can walk!” Said the researcher.

TO END THE SCIENCE

Add the alterscience should not be confused with the para-or pseudo-sciences like astrology or some alternative medicine. They do not have the characteristic to take the opposite camp with virulence. The alterscience, though. The goal to end the science is even present in some groups studied by historians, such as those described as “ultra-left”.

Inspired by thinkers in fashion in the 1970s such as Jacques Ellul and Ivan Illich, these radicals, as Oblomoff group or parts and labor, not only link the military excesses, polluting or alienating of techno, but to attack the science as a whole. “Planck’s constant is the key to technical and industrial dominance in the twentieth century,” pastiche Moatti to summarize this position linking basic theory and quantum mechanics to a negative policy. Purely scientific motivations of protest fade before others, more political and ideological.



Beyond inventory, Alexander Moatti trying to capture sources, dynamic commonalities of these different movements. Thus, he spotted an unexpected feature: the hatred of the “sign” of abstraction, equations … or theory against practice. This goes along with a critique of reductionism in science, which results in an ever greater reliance on laws, numbers … This is somewhat ironic for people who often much studied mathematics, but it shows that in addition to alternative theories these people develop their own vision of science, not hesitating to sort out ideas, men , concepts …

“TECHNOFASCISME”



“What is also striking is the resurgence of sea snakes between these groups and over time,” says the historian. For example, “technofasciste” American Lyndon LaRouche, as designated Alexander Moatti, reviews the history of math with the same arguments as the German Nazis learned a few decades earlier. Son learned from these politically separate groups indicate no willingness to mix, but want to understand how to build these discourses and ideologies. And negative, the opportunity to examine what science and its relationship with society.

For diving in alterscience emerges quite clearly the differences between science and its deformations, including the question of methods. It also highlights some contemporary attitudes that alterscience feeds: mistrust vis-à-vis technology, persistence of superstitions, temptation relativistic (all theories of nature are equal). Delusions not to be taken lightly …

He has his feet in the mud, but the head in the Milky Way. The dung beetle Scarabaeus satyrus present in South Africa, sailed to the ground by relying on the white glow of our galaxy in the night sky. So far, apart from man, only birds and seals were known to steer by the stars. We’ll have to add the little coprophage this short list thanks to the work of a team of Swedish and South African researchers, to be published Feb. 18 in the journal Current Biology.

Marie Dacke (Lund University, Sweden) and colleagues have already shown, ten years ago, that dung beetles are moving through the polarized light reflected from the moon. But what do they do when it is below the horizon? This is the question that meet their new experiences, carried out in two stages, first in the open air, in the southern sky, and in the Johannesburg Planetarium.

NIGHTS FULL MOON

The researchers then worked first night outdoors, with the ball of dung with dung that serves as a snack in the middle of a sand arena surrounded by a wall hiding any visible landmark in the exception of infrared camera installed overhanging filming their movements. Insects were equipped with a kind of cap, the visor was either opaque or transparent, in order to compare their behavior depending on whether they could or could not see the sky.

Animals that roamed the skies saw an average of two times less distance before reaching the edges than those whose dorsal vision was obscured, which tournicotaient in the arena. To ensure that the camera does not allow the former to identify by providing a fixed point, the researchers set up a second: off camera, it was not the length of the course was measured, but the time to switch off the sandy arena. The timer was stopped when the experimenters heard the fall of the insect, they write.

Again, the shortest time was recorded on full moon nights. Then came the performance Starry Night, which fell when the sky was overcast. Dung beetles have a “cap” opaque were the slowest sign of disorientation.

MOVE STRAIGHT

It remained to determine what is in the night sky as a compass for these beetles, knowing that their visual system is supposed too rudimentary to collect the vast majority of stars. The dome 18 meters in diameter planetarium Johannesburg has cut through the five types of skies that can be projected, juggling a set of 4000 stars, including the 18 most brilliant, in addition to the Milky Way, simulated by a more diffuse light. In total darkness, as in that where only the 18 brightest stars were lit, beetles adopted a disjointed way. “This clearly shows that they are not oriented with some unusual stars, but according to the band of light that is the Milky Way,” the researchers write. They also want to show the disorientation of the species S. zambezianus outdoors in October: at this time of the year in the southern sky, the Milky Way is near the horizon, out of sight of the animal …

One question remains: why is it so important for these dung beetles to orient and move in a straight line? “The only thing for them to do once they have formed their dumpling, is to get away as quickly as possible to the fierce competition that exists around dung, meets Eric Warrant, first author of the article. To avoid thieves, the straight line is then the best option, regardless of the chosen direction.

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Seventy thousand dead, million displaced inside the country, a million refugees in neighboring countries, millions of people affected by shortages and the collapse of the health system. “The humanitarian situation is catastrophic in Syria and assistance, paltry compared to the needs,” said the organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in its report “Two years of conflict in Syria – Humanitarian aid in the impasse “(PDF) published Thursday, March 7. If they have not been certified by the authorities of Damascus, the organization is engaged in the areas controlled by the opposition, which she runs including three hospitals.

In her report, she recounts the battle menu is daily humanitarian intervention in these areas. Given the impasse in which it is located on the ground, MSF calls on all parties to the conflict to find a minimal agreement on humanitarian aid. They provide access to humanitarian convoys across the front lines and borders and ensure the safety of humanitarian workers, medical facilities and patients.



Mego Terzian, MSF emergency manager, discusses the context of this appeal.

After reading your report and call you launch Thursday, there is a sense of a confession of impotence?

Mego Terzian: There is a sense of despair, then we are an experienced NGOs in conflict situations. We can not pretend to cover all the needs and organize all the help in areas where traditional humanitarian actors are virtually absent. In areas controlled by the opposition, we do not observe a traditional presence of experienced players in the conflict zones, such as UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and NGOs. To the Syrian people, it is a triple disappointment: political, military, and now humanitarian. There were big promises on providing non-lethal aid to the opposition-controlled areas, but on the ground, humanitarian aid is very shy. In my experience with MSF since 1999, this is the first time I see such a huge disparity between humanitarian needs and a very timid response. It is also the first time I see so many extreme violence.

In the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib, there are many doctors Syrian diaspora present in small health facilities. All believe in what they do, but everyone has their agenda, which is to participate indirectly in the war efforts. However, they do have the means to intervene in the case of victims of trauma. Other health needs are neglected. Almost nobody cares primary health needs, hardly anyone sends medicines for chronic diseases. Breaks observed on treatment months in patients with chronic diseases. Dialysis centers are no longer functional. In Aleppo, MSF has created the only blood bank that provides all the governorate. These problems of access to health care are compounded by the fact that there is no electricity, no drinking water, no food of good quality.

Donors traditional institutional funds are used to finance operations in conflict zones. In Syria, they are shy. Until the end of January, they did not finance NGOs are not registered in Syria. This has caused delays in humanitarian aid. It is not normal for a French NGO, lack of funding has been distributing blankets in the governorate of Aleppo after February 15, almost at the end of winter. Therefore, aid is shy, inadequate, poorly organized and poorly coordinated. It has similar echoes government side, where populations are found scattered without assistance with drug supply disruptions.



Filipe Ribeiro, director of MSF, said that “in the meantime, the lack of agreement should not prevent international NGOs to operate wherever they can, regardless of the authority that controls these territories.” How these organizations can intervene? Why do not they do now?

UN agencies and international NGOs accredited by the regime in Damascus could take a time or two the front lines and conduct cross-border activities, but it is insignificant compared to the needs that exist in areas under opposition control . They are asked to increase their relief operations in these areas, we would like them to organize more aggressive cross-border operations to conduct impartial activities for all Syrian people. In southern Sudan, for example, the UN agencies organized cross-border large-scale organizations in the rebel areas from Kenya and politically assumed this operation. Today, we do not see tents of the World Food Programme in Turkey, no trucks, cars and staff of UN agencies in the north of Aleppo and Idlib.

These organizations argue that to cross-border transactions must be an agreement between two parties. They certainly are afraid of losing their accreditation. We believe they have the political ability to put pressure on the Syrian authorities to organize cross-border activities. Damascus think twice before setting these agencies in rebel areas. They point out that the security risks for their teams. We know it is not easy to make operations areas under the control of the opposition, because of the violence of the fighting. This is the first time I observed many targeting the medical mission in conflict zones. Traditionally, armed groups respect our work, which protects us from danger and protect populations. MSF had to give up temporarily, for example, to expand its activities in Jabal Al-Zawiyya in the governorate of Idlib, due to insecurity. Our other three hospitals were never covered by the Syrian authorities, we kept informed of their location and the nature of their activities.



Have you initiated a dialogue with international organizations, with the belligerents and the states involved in the conflict? Why not have a joint appeal?

We do not blame anybody. All humanitarian and political actors need to find a solution. International organizations have all realized that the intervention framework must change, but they tell us that negotiations with the Syrian authorities are particularly difficult. States having good relations with the Syrian government may also put more pressure to facilitate border crossings for international humanitarian actors. We talk with them, but the results are not satisfactory. We also initiated a dialogue with the authorities in Damascus to convince them to provide impartial assistance.

We are alone in this call publicly. Some NGOs have been active in Europe and the United States, but not publicly. They favor dialogue and direct negotiations rather than a public call.

Director of the Department of Political Science at the University of Paris-I, Regional Advisor (Europe Ecology-Greens) Ile-de-France, Fran?ois Bastien has published The Political System of the Fifth Republic (La Découverte, 2011).

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A year after his election, Francois Hollande seems to be back to a practice of power that condemned his entry at the Elysee Palace, that of a president on all fronts, in the manner of Nicolas Sarkozy. How do you explain that?

This is the five years that it wants. Not so much because of the transition from seven to five years of the presidential term that due to the electoral calendar. For Nicolas Sarkozy as for Francois Hollande, not only the elections came ratify the presidential election, but the re-election of parliamentarians is indexed to the political success of President. If they lose, their chances of being re-elected are lower. Mechanically, this requires the President to take even more than before, a leadership position.

How do you explain the feeling felt during the first eleven months, an unprecedented erase the Prime Minister?

I do not think it’s a personality problem. If, at the outset, there was a clear program of government, Jean-Marc Ayrault would have been a real space, consisting precisely implement the program.

When the political line is fluctuating, or the authority of the Prime Minister questioned by ministers without reaction of the Elysee, it creates interference. The difference between Nicolas Sarkozy and Fran?ois Hollande is the first one immediately assumed to play a leading role, while the latter thought he could help it, realized that it was not tenable, but did not clearly acknowledged. Hence a kind of blur that endures.

Institutions do not they promote this ambiguity?

If, and it touches on what I call systemic inconsistency of the Fifth Republic, which two men who govern together without coexisting roles of one and the other in terms of political leadership or arbitration are clearly predefined. This inconsistency makes shots bar, sometimes in a parliamentary sense, sometimes in a more presidential direction.

Hence the temptation for presidents to their premier forward in difficult times, to protect …

Yes, in the past, it happened often. But the logic of the five-year period makes it much more difficult. Now, it is illusory to believe that the Prime Minister can be used fuse.

Today, reports tend between the executive and Parliament. Seen particularly through the reservations expressed by the draft law on “transparency.” Does not it surprise you not from Mr. Holland, who has always held in the household members?

This is the system that wants that. Remember 1981: at the time the reports were sometimes extremely tense between Fran?ois Mitterrand and the Socialist Group in the Assembly, chaired by Pierre Joxe. Today, two factors contribute to what the reports are even more complicated: the fact that the Senate is on the left, which encourages members to be an escalation that would not be if the Senate was in opposition and on the other hand, some sociological evolution, that young parliamentarians are much less willing to play the boots than their elders.

In this context, my assumption is that Mr. Holland will gradually align with Mr Sarkozy, using all the weapons in his power to shake the Parliament blocked vote, scheduled time, accelerated.

Do you think, as some do, that tightened government would restore the president a new life?

The history of government is a narrow sea serpent, but they are wrong to challenge if we focus on the number of ministers. The problem today is not that there are too many ministers, but there are too many political lines coexist. What should be noted is the line.

How can we attribute to the difficulties of government institutions and the majority?

From my point of view, the policies do not have to look for excuses in institutions to explain their mistakes. But it is true that our institutions have perverse effects. One seems essential to me: when you have a president who is accountable to no one, it promotes a form of imprisonment or inertia. If Mr. Holland was responsible to the majority, as is Mr Cameron, or Merkel, he would have to react much more quickly to clarify its course, to explain further, because its survival would depend on the support of its parliamentary majority . The fact that it is protected facto put in the situation that has hit all his predecessors, and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was summarized in an expression: “The solitary exercise of power.”

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A little less than equal to a little more equity. In a report revealed Monday, April 1, through the website of Les Echos and Le Monde has obtained, Bertrand Fragonard offers a small revolution in family policy. One of the strongest recommendations of the Deputy Chairman of the High Council of the family is to vary the family benefits based on income. The richest continue to receive this type of aid but less than that accorded to less affluent households level. The goal is to give more to the poorest families, while restoring the financial balance of the family business.

The recommendations of Mr. Fragonard, which must be discussed, Thursday, April 4, the High Council of the family, in the context of a highly sensitive mission entrusted to him, January 23, Jean-Marc Ayrault. The Prime Minister asked the expert social policies “propose several scenarios” to clear, no later than 2016 billion annual deficit of the National Family Allowances Fund (CNAF) . Mr. Ayrault suggested including identifying potential savings on benefits paid to households.

This has prompted many positions and intense debate. The first president of the Court of Auditors, Didier Migaud, suggested taxing the allowances. Two PS Gerard Bapt and Pascal Terrasse MPs have, in turn, called for halving data services to households crossing a certain threshold of income.

REDUCTION OF AID FOR affluent households

In his televised speech, March 28, Francois Hollande has rejected the idea of ??integration into the tax base income family allowances. However, it was in favor of a reduction in subsidies for wealthy households, “What the highest incomes have the same benefits, no, it will be reviewed”, he started.

This is one of the paths explored by Mr. Fragonard. Currently, family allowances are paid to all families with at least two dependent children ( million beneficiaries). The allocations are the same, regardless of the level of resources. The report proposes to break this “principle of uniformity of family allowances” and adjust the amount depending on income. The goal is to focus the main effort on the 20% richest households (first two deciles).



This scheme, the report adds, follows “two imperatives” save “the top of the middle class” and preserve as much as possible, “the progress of these depending on the size of the family.”

PROPOSED SEVERAL SCENARIOS

Several options are put forward by Mr. Fragonard depending on the extent of the savings. In the mildest case (450 million to find), the benefits begin to decline for a family with two children earning 7,296 euros in revenue per month in excess of 10,215 euros per month, households with two children would receive more than 25% of current allocations. In the hardest ( billion savings) hypothesis, the benefits would fall from a threshold of EUR 3 885 and would be capped at 25% beyond a monthly income of 5866 euros. Logically, the “percentage losers” is directly indexed to make sacrifices to 7% of beneficiaries affected if the economy reached 450 million, 28% to billion euros.

The report differs a thorough overhaul of the marital, family and the “familialization” the CSG, which refer to a more comprehensive reform of samples quotient. Although Mr. Holland has excluded a taxation benefits, the report analyzes the measurement of outputs from 730 million euros to billion as it concerns only family allowances or the whole family benefits. This scenario, which increase the rate of compulsory payments of percent of GDP, would cover many households and create new taxpayers. Many families with young dependents are the most requested.

REFORM OF FAMILY QUOTIENT

The other track is the hardening of the ceiling of the family quotient, which is the wealthiest households in their first child. The cap, set for 2013-2 000 per share, already covers million households. Raise it to 1750 or 1500 euros would yield respectively 430 and 915 million. One million households would be affected (10% of tax households with dependent children). The average additional tax would reach 36 and 68 euros per month.

The scope of the reform of the family quotient is larger than the set-tested family benefits: it concerns the one-child families and those with children over 20 years attached to the tax residence of his parents. Therefore, the reform of the family quotient weigh much less on families with dependent children within the meaning of family benefits, the decline of family allowances.

The report also proposes to end tax on income related to enrollment in college and high school reductions, which would bring 235 million euros.

After regaining balance in 2016, the family business should again surpluses. It is at this point that the government will “trade-offs” to make the use of this windfall, insists Mr. Fragonard. They will have to choose between two options: revise the architecture benefits or rebalance the system, for example by developing the provision of childcare at the expense of “cash benefits”.